The South Orange Blossom Trail is considered by some to be a hodgepodge of sex shops, crime spots, gaudy signs, and heavy traffic.

But some residents and business people in the area are trying to change the perception of the U.S. highway, including its reputation as Orlando and Orange County's highest crime districts.

In recent years, three groups have launched efforts to revitalize the South Trail and make it a better place to live and work.

Often critical of each other's methods, the organizations have focused their efforts on different aspects of beautification. Each group has insisted its approach is just as good, if not better, than the

other organizations and so far have refused to coordinate their efforts.

Nonetheless, Orlando and Orange county officials agree that the current campaigns have been more effective in improving aesthetics than past efforts. ''As people show a little interest, it's starting to look better and it's going to move some of the criminal activity out,'' said sheriff's deputy Julian Fuller, who works with some of the groups.

County Commissioner Vera Carter, who recently helped one of the groups pick up trash from the sides of the South Trail, said many of the group's goals have been accomplished and she is optimistic improvements will continue.

''They've been able to encourage the businesses to clean up their property and I'm encouraged by it,'' Carter said. ''Whoever does it, it's a good thing.''

One of the groups in the current cleanup effort is the South Orange Blossom Trail Historical Society. It was formed in April by the owner of four topless bars on the Trail.

Charging that the other organizations were all talk and no action, Michael Peter organized business people to change the South Trail's negative image and make it a vibrant commercial zone.

The group provides merchants with marketing and legal advice, encourages them to landscape their property and offers tips on how to improve interior and exterior designs, said Laird Boles, director of the society.

Last month, society members, government officials and residents spent a day canvassing the area, trimming shrubs and picking up trash along the roadsides. ''We want people to drive down the Trail and see that the artery looks a little better and that they can effect change, not just talk about it,'' Boles said.

The president of another group, the Holden Heights Area Chamber of Commerce, has been critical of Peter and his group, questioning how someone who is part of the problem can help overcome the difficulties.

''I think he's got something up his sleeve,'' chamber president Jack Jordan was once quoted as saying.

Although still skeptical, Jordan, a minister, has since changed his opinion to consider Peter as something of an ally. ''We need all the help we can get,'' he said recently.

Organized in the late 1960s, the chamber started a campaign almost two years ago to clean up the South Trail by forcing adult entertainment businesses, like those owned by Peter, out of their neighborhood.

Realizing that the businesses' Constitutional guarantees were making their task nearly impossible, chamber members soon shifted their concentration to the enforcement of area improvement and zoning codes, in the hopes that improvements will attract new businesses.

That's where officials like Sandra Swaffar, the area's county code enforcement officer, can help.

This past summer, Swaffar, Jordan and Fuller made several trips through the Holden Heights area to identify eyesores such as abandoned vehicles, and neglected lots.

Swaffar, who can only check a problem after she gets a complaint, served an average of 25 notices of code violations and cited about 30 disabled vehicles in one month. Most property owners correct the violations, but some do not, forcing Swaffar to make additional visits.

The county and city created their own revitalization committee last year and gave the organization $20,000 to draft long-range answers to the area's traffic, zoning and safety problems.

The Orange Blossom Trail Development Board believes that by making improvements to rights of way and private property it can encourage social improvements, according to its director, Randall Grief.

The board periodically uses county inmate trusties to pick up trash and to clean and plant shrubs in the median.

Grief points to several new businesses coming to the Trail in the last six months as evidence that an improved appearance is sparking commercial growth, including service stations, an auto parts store, a furniture store and a Wendy's restaurant.

The development board grew out of an Orlando crime commission task force, but Grief said the board is not studying crime prevention near the South Trail.

''There is a crime problem, and we hope by working in blocks at a time that we can improve on these items also,'' he said.

Orlando police and the Sheriff's Office have increased law enforcement in the area to reduce prostitution and other crimes.